Ultimate Guide to Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy

If you’re reading this page then you’ve probably been asking, “what is hypnosis?”, or “what is hypnotherapy?” This article is going to delve into all the pertinent aspects of hypnosis and hypnotherapy. It will cover the following topics:

Angela’s Experience:

Throughout this article I’ll be sharing the experience of one of my clients. We’ll call her “Angela.” Naturally, to protect her privacy I’ll be changing details about her life, Such as her name. The specifics about her goals and experience with hypnotherapy will remain the same.

Hypnosis or Hypnotherapy

First, before getting into the particulars of hypnosis, let’s address the distinction between hypnosis and hypnotherapy.

Hypnosis is a skill by which a trained hypnotist can guide a subject into a hypnotic state. There’s a lot to unpack in that simple statement and we’ll get into it next.

Hypnotherapy is a process. It is a methodology by which a trained therapist helps a client to affect change in their life. There are many tools used in hypnotherapy, primarily among them hypnosis.

Perhaps the difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy is subtle, but it’s worth noting.

Angela’s Experience (cont.):

Angela first came to me as a volunteer. I was giving a lecture and demonstration on hypnosis and sought volunteers to act as on-stage subjects. In exchange for their bravery, I offered each of the volunteers three free one-on-one hypnotherapy sessions in my office. Being someone who is generally open-minded and interested in alternative modalities, Angela was excited for her first session.

What Is Hypnosis?

Have you ever found yourself lying in bed, lost in your own thoughts, just thinking about something? Maybe it’s school, or work or your relationships? If you have, you likely have experienced one or more interesting phenomenon.

Perhaps you became so lost in your own thoughts and imagination that you completely lost track of time and later realized that what felt like just a few minutes turned out to be much more.

Perhaps your imagination began to take on a life of its own, more vivid than usual revelry, something more like a dream… even though you were still awake and aware of your surroundings.

Perhaps you got so caught up in your musings that the outside world faded away and without even realizing it you had fallen asleep.

All of these experiences are natural forms of hypnosis and there are plenty more.

One natural form of hypnosis that many have experienced is commonly referred to as “highway hypnosis.”

Highway hypnosis occurs usually on long, familiar routes while driving. Although you remain aware of the road and your surroundings, your attention begins to turn inward.

Usually you still get where you’re going, though sometimes you might miss a turn, but along the way you’re just sort of lost in your own thoughts. That is hypnosis in a nutshell.

Angela’s Experience (cont.):

When Angela finally came in for her first hypnotherapy session she was anxious to see if she would be a good candidate for hypnosis. She had never been hypnotized before, nor had she ever seen a stage hypnosis show in person.

We discussed her goals, of which she had several. In general, I find it important to focus on one goal at a time. For those, like Angel, who have multiple goals we’ll identify the most important goal to start with. Then, once we’ve made a little progress there, we can begin to address more issues.

Angela had two primary goals.

First was her career. Years earlier, after a very painful and difficult divorce, Angela’s career suffered drastically. Gone were the days of the corner office and a staff of people reporting to her. Instead, she found herself in a dead-end job she hated, barely making ends meet.

Angela’s second goal involved her love life. Since the divorce, she had little to no luck in romance. Fun, energetic, intelligent and beautiful you would think meeting men would be easy for her. On the contrary, though, she could only seem to attract the wrong sort of guy.

How Does Hypnosis Work?

As we’ve already discussed, hypnosis is a natural phenomenon. In fact, there are some estimates that the average person spends up to a third of their waking hours in a hypnotic state.

When working with a hypnotist (or practicing self-hypnosis for that matter), we simply take advantage of natural mechanisms that already exist in the human brain and use them to guide the client into a hypnotic state.

Often this is done using relaxation techniques, but it is incorrect to think that hypnosis is a form of relaxation. Actually, hypnosis is part of the fight, flight, freeze response.

It’s Not About Relaxation.

Certainly, you’re familiar with fight, flight, freeze. When a person becomes overwhelmed, the brain and body shift into this state. A flood of hormones is released, breathing and blood flow increase. Time seems to slow. And… conscious thought takes a back seat to unconscious action.

The mechanism is sound. Imagine yourself to be one of our ancient ancestors. Going about your hunter-gatherer life, you are suddenly confronted by a hungry animal!

There is no time to think, to plan, even to evaluate the situation. You must act immediately.

To that end, the conscious, thinking, planning, logical parts of the mind need to get out of the way so that the more instinctual parts of the brain can simply react.

Believe it or not, that’s exactly what we’re doing in hypnosis.

Now, there is a whole category of hypnotic inductions called “shock inductions” that shock, or even frighten, a person into a hypnotic trance. Such inductions are not used in a hypnotherapy office. They are primarily academic, not practical.

No, in a hypnotherapy session you are much more likely to experience infinitely more relaxing and pleasurable forms of hypnotic induction. But, I just said that hypnosis is NOT about relaxation, so how can you use relaxation to create a hypnotic trance?

Great question!

It Sure Is Relaxing Though!

In a hypnotherapy session we begin by creating a mental overload. Instead of wild and hungry animals, we use conversation. We talk about the goals that brought you in, as well as the stress, grief, anxiety or hurt in your life that you are looking to resolve. We talk about how you’ve been struggling with achieving your goals and all the negative emotions that creates in your life.

Then we do hypnotic testing. These are little exercises designed to serve two functions. First, they tell me, the hypnotherapist, a little about how you respond to hypnosis. They give me some clues about how I can be a better hypnotist for you specifically. Second, they further add to all the “stuff” going on in the office.

The talking and testing, the paperwork, even finding the office on your first visit, or getting your computer set up for your first video conference… all these things are contributing to creating an overload state.

Then, when it’s time for hypnosis, you’re already hypnotized! I just take that already existing state and shape it. I guide you inward, into your own thoughts and imagination. And once that is accomplished we can begin to work toward achieving your goals.

Angela’s Experience (cont.):

After a bit of discussion, I recommended that we focus on Angela’s career first. I felt that if we could reduce the stress associated with her job and get her feeling more confident in the future, that it would be easier, and more healthy, to then focus on her romantic goals. She agreed.

With our focus settled, I walked Angela through a series of simple hypnotic “tests.” I do these tests with all of my clients. First are two or three little exercises in the imagination. There’s no right or wrong with these tests, but my client’s reaction helps me understand how they process information.

The exercises are usually followed by a questionnaire which furthers helps to refine the information I’ve already learned.

After completing the tests I was able to get a feel for how Angela both accepts and transmits information. Based on the results she was a moderate to high “physical” on the Emotional & Physical scale of suggestibility.

I’m not going to go into E&P theory in this article, but Angela’s results told me that for her, emotional responses tend to manifest as physical feelings in the body (something not true for all people). I also learned that she tends to like to receive information very directly, but conversely, tends to communicate very inferentially, that is, speaking around the topic rather than address it directly.

With such information in hand I was better prepared to guide her into hypnosis and to work with her once in hypnotic trance.

Why Does Hypnosis Work?

Now that you understand a little about what hypnosis is, and how it works, you might be wondering why hypnosis helps people to affect change in their lives. Let’s examine that a little bit now.

As we discussed, hypnosis is an artifact of the human brain, particularly part of the fight, flight, freeze mechanism. In times of overload, the conscious mind gets out of the way so that the subconscious mind (the part in charge of emotion, habit and belief) takes over.

Hypnotherapists have long suspected, and modern neuroscience has now confirmed, that 85% – 90% of the human mind is the subconscious mind. 90%! That means only 10% – 15% is the conscious mind. Of course, you can only truly experience the world through the conscious mind, so from the vantage point of our perspective, we think that our conscious mind is in control. In reality… it’s just simply not.

Think for a moment of some of the bad habits you’ve tried to change in the past and failed miserably. Consider, perhaps, some negative thoughts or ideas (about yourself, or others) that have haunted you. Take a moment and ponder that irrational fear or belief that you’ve never been able to shake even though you know it’s silly.

Your Conscious Mind Is NOT In Control!

If our conscious minds were really in control, we would simply change the way we think.

Every overweight person knows they’re overweight. The vast majority know that they make unhealthy choices, and most even know, consciously, what they should be doing differently.

Every person who panics when it’s time to board an airplane knows it’s ridiculous. They’ve seen the statistics. They understand, consciously, that it’s the safest way to travel.

And nearly every person who looks at themselves in the mirror and thinks all sorts of negative, hurtful things about themselves is aware, cognitively, that those thoughts aren’t true… but those thoughts feel true anyway.

Why?

Because the conscious mind is NOT in control, the subconscious mind is. And that’s where hypnosis and hypnotherapy come in.

Once in the hypnotic state, it is possible to communicate directly with that subconscious mind, using its preferred language: emotion and symbolism. Then through the process of hypnotherapy, those old beliefs and behaviors that do not serve you can begin to change into new beliefs and behaviors that do.

Angela’s Experience (cont.):

During our first couple sessions Angela and I began focusing on improving her career. She had told me many of the events surrounding her difficult divorce and how they had affected her so much. You might think that such information is needed for effective hypnotherapy, to dig into the past as it were. Actually, it’s not. Angela needed someone to talk to and I was happy to listen, but the reality is that hypnotherapy isn’t focused on the past. It’s focused on the future. We focus not on where you’ve been, but where you want to be.

Bearing that in mind, Angela began building a list of what she wanted her life, and in this case, her career to be like. We focused on what she wanted her day to day to be filled with, and more importantly, what it should feel like.

The subconscious mind is all about emotions, about feelings. By developing those feelings in hypnosis, the subconscious begins to accept them. Then it begins to seek them out. The subconscious mind starts to recognize that they way Angela was feeling every day at work was not the way she’s supposed to feel. That part of her, her subconscious, had begun to learn that there was a different way.

Can I Be Hypnotized?

People tell me, all the time, “I don’t think I can be hypnotized.” Usually, that idea comes from one of two places.

First that person may have been to a hypnosis show, a stage show, and when the stage hypnotist asked the audience to follow along in some simple exercises, they just didn’t feel anything. That’s common and expected. In fact, a good stage hypnosis show needs a large audience. The more people you have, the more likely you are to find a few good subjects to come up on stage.

It’s important to understand that the stage hypnotist is actively trying to identify a very specific type of person to come up on stage. We call these people “natural somnambulists.” And while the natural somnambulist makes for great demonstrations and great comedy stage shows, they aren’t better hypnotherapy clients than other people. Even though they show much more outward signs of being hypnotized, they don’t actually get the benefits of hypnotherapy necessarily any faster than anyone else.

The Smarter You Are, The Better Hypnotherapy Client You’ll Be

The second reason that people often believe that they can’t be hypnotized is that they think that hypnosis only works on the “weak minded” or unintelligent. Thankfully that is simply not true, in fact, quite the opposite is true.

Hypnosis is a natural state. It’s something we all experience, usually every day. The only difference in hypnotherapy is that the state is being directed rather than happening on its own.

More importantly, hypnosis relies heavily on the imagination and the ability to self-reflect and analyze one’s thoughts and feelings. It is for those reasons that it is widely held that more intelligent people make for better hypnotherapy clients.

Angela’s Experience (cont.):

For the past several years, nearly a decade in fact, Angela had been trapped by her subconscious mind. The horrible events that unfolded around her divorce had convinced her, on a subconscious level that she wasn’t worthy of a good life. That she was a failure.

She never believed these things consciously, but that doesn’t matter. The conscious mind is only about 10% of the mind. Her conscious thoughts were not powerful enough to overcome her unconscious beliefs about herself.

But as we worked in hypnotherapy to create new, positive subconscious beliefs, her life began to change.

What Is It Like To Be Hypnotized?

Many people wonder what it feels like to be hypnotized. It’s a natural question and it’s something that I always discuss with my clients during their first session, as a way to set expectations.

After all, people almost always come into hypnosis with plenty of ideas about what hypnosis must be like.

Most of my clients come to their first session having only been exposed to hypnosis in fiction (television or movies). Some have the additional experience of having witnessed a stage hypnosis show. If those are your only points of reference, then it’s understandable that you may have some misconceptions about hypnosis.

Again, the hypnotic state is a natural state. It’s something we all experience every day, throughout the day.

Remember the example I gave earlier, that of so-called “highway hypnosis.” There’s a very good chance that you’ve experienced something similar in your life, and that experience will give you a good idea about what to expect in hypnosis.

Hypnosis is simply a turning inward. It’s a state in which the inner world, the imagination, takes focus.

Even in hypnosis, you are still awake.

You are still completely aware of your surroundings.

Hypnosis is NOT mind control! You are still in complete control.

The imagination becomes a little more vivid. Emotions become a little easier to get in touch with.

For most hypnotherapy clients, hypnosis is a state of calm, relaxation, and inward focus. That’s it.

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Angela’s Experience (cont.):

At first, for Angela, the changes were subtle, and more about how she thought than how she acted. Her job, which had long felt like a pit of quicksand, dragging her down with no escape, took on a different sense. It began to feel temporary. She began to know in her heart that there was something better for her, she just had to find it.

Even that little bit of shift in belief can be incredibly powerful. Suddenly it became easier to deal with the day to day because Angela knew that she was moving toward something better.

Common Phenomena of Light to Moderate Hypnotic Trance States.

In the therapeutic setting, i.e. during a hypnotherapy session, the goal is to achieve a light to moderate hypnotic trance. As mentioned earlier, many clients come into their session already in that state or nearly there. For those people, the hypnotherapist simply needs to take that existing mental overload and use it to guide the client into a state of calm relaxation.

For those who are not quite there, the skilled hypnotist has many tools for first creating that overload state (with pleasant visualizations and fun and easy mental exercises), then likewise guiding the client into that calm, peaceful hypnosis.

Once in a hypnotic state, clients often experience certain phenomena. Here are the most common.

Time Dilation:

By far, time dilation is the most common hypnotic phenomenon. For the client experiencing time dilation, thirty minutes in hypnosis may feel like only five. Very frequently, especially during the first session, after bringing the client out of hypnosis, they are astounded to see how much time has passed, because even though they were aware the entire time, and have a complete memory of the session, they feel like it all happened in just a few minutes time.

Physical Disassociation

Less common, but still frequently the client becomes so inwardly focused that they become somewhat disassociated from their physical body and they stop noticing most physical sensations. So while they would still feel it of someone touched them, they no longer notice being particularly warm or cold. They no longer notice aches and pains.

Heightened Emotions

Another common, but not quite ubiquitous, hypnotic phenomenon is the ability to feel emotions much more strongly. Good emotions feel even better and bad emotions can feel even worse. This phenomenon is particularly beneficial, as many of the therapeutic processes used in hypnotherapy benefit from feeling powerful emotions.

Enhanced Imagination

Everyone’s imagination is a little unique, and different people experience their imagination differently. Often, when describing imagination, we tend to do so in terms of visuals, that is “seeing” with your imagination. But many people simply do not have a strong, if any, visual component to their imagination. So, however it is that a person imagines, their imagination often will become much more vivid in a hypnotic trance state. For those that do “see” with their imagination, their imagination can become very lifelike.

Angela’s Experience (cont.):

Having exhausted the gratis sessions I had promised Angela, in thanks for her volunteering, she decided to stay on as a client and we continued to focus on her career.

By her fourth and fifth sessions Angela was seeing real change in her life. It wasn’t magical, though it can often feel that way. No, it was a result of her own actions, brought on by the changes to her subconscious thoughts and beliefs.

Feeling better about herself and about her future career prospects, Angela had begun performing better at work. She was more engaged and taking more initiative. In a field with high turnover rates such changes were quickly noticed by her boss and within just a few weeks of us beginning our work together Angela received her first raise.

What About Very Deep Hypnosis?

Now, it’s completely true that for most hypnosis subjects, the hypnotic experience is one of intense calm, peaceful relaxation, and inward focus. Those people remain completely aware and usually describe their experience as being enjoyable and relaxing, but far from what TV and movies portray.

Some people can go very deep into the hypnotic state and their experience is a little different.

These people, often called “natural somnambulists,” easily go very deep into hypnosis. These natural somnambulists make up less than 25% of the population. For them, hypnosis is much more like it is in the movies.

Deep Hypnosis Does NOT Help Hypnotherapy

Such deep states of hypnosis are certainly not necessary. Indeed, contrary to what you might expect, deep hypnotic states are not better for hypnotherapy.

I want my clients to be completely aware, and participating in their hypnotherapy session, so I do not try to create such deep states. Some hypnotists do, but that is usually due to a lack of understanding or sub-par training.

When I have a client who reports to me, after our first session, that they experienced any of the deep trance phenomena, I will usually modify their future sessions to keep them from going so deep.

While a small percentage of hypnosis clients will experience these deep hypnotic trance states easily and readily, even in their first session, it is much more common for long-term hypnosis clients to experience deep trance states.

Often times, a client may begin to experience very deep hypnotic trance states when I have been working with them for multiple sessions, sometimes this is after 5 or 6 sessions but more frequently, this is for long-term clients who have been hypnotized 8 or more times. This happens simply because there is so much trust and rapport between the client and myself. They can just completely let go and allow themselves to enter that very deep state.

Angela’s Experience (cont.):

Her confidence boosted by her recent raise, Angela wanted to shift focus in our sessions, away from her career and more to her love life. I advised against it. I really do believe it is much better to stay focused and see it through to the end. She was insistent though, so we began to focus on helping her find a rewarding relationship. Even so, not wanting to lose the momentum we had gained toward her career goals. I also continued to give career focused suggestions during our hypnotherapy sessions.

Common Phenomena of Deep Hypnotic Trance States.

Again, for most people hypnosis is simply a state of calm, peaceful relaxation with an inward focus. They remain completely aware of everything going on around them. For those in very deep hypnotic states, however, the following phenomena may occur:

Hypnotic Amnesia

The most common deep hypnotic trance phenomenon, hypnotic amnesia, is exactly what it sounds like. The client will have gaps in their memory of the session. Often the client will remember starting the induction and then simply “wake up” when being brought out of hypnosis. Usually though, when someone experiences hypnotic amnesia, they remember most of the session, but some of it may be missing.

Inner Journeys

Much rarer are the sessions where the client eschews whatever therapeutic processes the hypnotherapist is attempting, simply ignores everything that’s being said, and goes on their own inward journey. You might liken this to dreaming, but unlike a dream the client will usually find that their journey was therapeutic in its own way, often lending insight toward achieving their goals.

Spiritual Experiences

While this is very rare, it’s common enough that most hypnotherapists have experienced some form of it. Somewhat related to the inner journey, in this case, the client has some form of spiritual experience. Often it comes in the form of communication with some higher aspect of themselves, or what they believe to be a spirit guide or angel. Sometimes the client might experience a spontaneous past life regression. These spiritual experiences are rare, and can usually be explained away. Even so, I have personally been witness to some powerful experiences that seem to defy explanation.

Angela’s Experience (cont.):

So, like with her career goals, Angela and I began to explore what her ideal relationship would be like. As I mentioned, hypnotherapy is very future focused, but in this case, I did try to get a little history from Angela regarding her past relationship and what went wrong. I wanted to avoid repeating any past mistakes or negative patterns.

Unfortunately seeking that information about the past opened up of a “can of worms,” so to speak. Angela had a lot of hurt that had built up over the years and needed someone to vent to. I listened, it’s part of my job, but it’s also part of my job to keep us focused on the future.

As a hypnotherapist it’s important to remember (and state law dictates) that I am not a talk therapist. I feel that with Angela I possibly indulged her need to vent just a little too much and regrettably, it impacted our work together.

Dwelling on the past and reliving past hurts and traumas is rarely the path to moving forward. By allowing Angela to keep going back to the past it slowed her progress. And, while it only added a few weeks to our work, I regret allowing it and, frankly, I’ve been much stricter with my clients since then.

What’s the Difference Between Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy?

The distinction between hypnosis and hypnotherapy is pretty straightforward, so I won’t spend a lot of time on this. Essentially, hypnosis is a tool, hypnotherapy is a process. What I mean is this: hypnotherapy is a process through which a skilled and trained hypnotherapist guides their clients in order to achieve a specific goal.

The goals of the clients are always different. Some need help with anxiety. Others are looking to break old, bad habits and form new good ones. Still others are looking to unleash their potential and discover more success in their lives, be that in career, romance, sports, or really any aspect of their lives.

During the process of hypnotherapy, the skilled hypnotherapist will employ many tools to help their clients. Naturally, hypnosis is chief among them, but the experienced hypnotherapist knows how to also incorporate other tools into the process. Tools like NLP, EFT, meditation, visualization, and many others.

Angela’s Experience (cont.):

Even with our delay, Angela continued to see progress in her career and began seeing progress in her love life.

For the first time in years she was actively dating again. Certain that she could find her ideal relationship, she had no problem being confident in herself, enjoying the company of her date, and at the same time sticking to what she wanted in a man. If her date didn’t measure up she didn’t see him again. This meant she was keeping her calendar full, meeting plenty of prospects, but not wasting her time on men that ultimately weren’t going to measure up.

She was having fun and feeling great about herself.

What Can Hypnotherapy Help With?

Hypnotherapy deals with the subconscious mind, and as we’ve already learned, the subconscious mind accounts for about 90% of all your thoughts, actions, behaviors and habits. As such, hypnotherapy can help with nearly anything to which there is a mental component.

That said, the majority of my clients are interested in using hypnosis to overcome anxiety, using hypnosis to relieve stress in their lives, and using hypnosis to achieve goals (primarily career or romantic goals).

Beyond that, many issues in our daily lives can be addressed by hypnotherapy. Here’s a list of some of the most common issues that hypnotherapists help with:

Angela’s Experience (cont.):

As Angela’s views about her job continued to shift, something interesting started to happen. Where initially she became motivated to work harder, take more initiative, and impress her superiors, now she was starting to realize that this job simply wasn’t going to work long-term.

As she had taken on more and more responsibility over the past few months she began to realize that she knew what she was doing and she was good at her job.

Whereas just a few months prior she hated what she did and often felt incompetent and overwhelmed, now she was ready to take on the world and felt like she could accomplish anything.

She decided it was time for some real change in her life.

How Long Does Hypnotherapy Take?

There are so many exciting aspects to hypnosis and hypnotherapy, but perhaps the most amazing one is just how quickly the process works to affect change in a person’s life.

Based on the experience of my own clients, I can say that most people begin to notice real change after the third session.

It has further been my experience that most of my clients achieve their goals by about our sixth session.

In general, I will see clients once each week for the first four sessions then either continue at that rate or change to once every other week after that. So for most clients, it works out to be less than two months of hypnotherapy.

Another exciting aspect of hypnotherapy is how the client experiences change in their lives. Because the stress, or fear, or anxiety, or bad habit that one is looking to change originates in the subconscious mind, and because hypnotherapy works directly with the subconscious mind, the change people experience always comes from within.

Don’t Try to Be Different, Just Be.

Often times the client is asked, in traditional talk therapy, to “be different,” to “think different,” or to keep trying exercise after exercise until some sort of change is experienced.

In hypnotherapy, none of that exists. Now, to be fair, I might ask my clients to begin meditating, so I do sometimes assign “homework,” but I’m never asking you to be differently. The change comes from within.

That same part of your mind that is today telling you to think or behave one way, simply stops telling you that. Now it tells you to behave a different way. It’s completely natural, it comes from within.

What is so remarkable is that so often my clients don’t even realize that the problem has gone away. It’s not until I ask about how their week was, or until their friends point out that they’ve been acting differently, that they even notice. It’s just so natural and you’re still you. You never have to try to be different or act differently. You just keep being you and things seem to improve all on their own. It’s truly remarkable to witness.

Angela’s Experience (cont.):

With Angela’s new responsibilities came new contacts. The company’s clients and customers were being exposed to Angela and they were impressed with what she could accomplish.

She began sending emails and scheduling lunches, not as a representative of her company, but as a career professional who was networking.

Feeling self-confident and charismatic, for the first time in many, many years, Angela had no problem connecting with her peers and they were more than happy to put in a good word and pass her resume along.

Meanwhile our work around dating had paid off. Angela had met someone. He was literally everything on her list. In many ways, he seemed a little too good to be true, but she was falling hard for this guy and things were getting serious between them.

How You Can Get Started with Hypnotherapy.

Now that you’ve learned quite a bit about hypnotherapy perhaps you’re starting to wonder if you could benefit from working with a skilled hypnotherapist. If nothing else, it’s probably worth looking into.

I work with clients all over the world from the comfort of their own homes via the Internet. Internet video conferencing allows us to have a face-to-face, one-on-one session from anywhere. It is highly effective, and my remote clients love it. You simply need an Internet-connected device like a smartphone, tablet or computer.

You may be wondering if Internet hypnotherapy is as effective. And while it’s true that I do prefer it if my Columbus, Ohio, clients come into the office, you will be surprised to learn that for decades, telephone-based hypnotherapy has been highly successful. Now, with Internet video conferencing, remote hypnotherapy is even better.

Of course, if you prefer to work with someone local, I completely understand. Naturally, Google is a great resource for finding a hypnotherapist in your area. Also here are two resources which may help:

Angela’s Experience (cont.):

I see most of my clients for about six sessions (around two months). Most of my clients, though, aren’t looking to make as many, or as significant changes as Angela was.

Bearing that in mind, it was right around six months since I’d been working with Angela that everything suddenly came together. At the same time, everything threatened to completely fall apart.

Beware Untrained and Inexperienced Hypnotists

A word of caution: while regional laws vary drastically, it is largely true that hypnotherapy is an unregulated profession. In many ways, this is a good thing. We have seen, even very recently, how state psychological boards try to shut down hypnotherapy. Unable to cite even a single case of a client who was harmed through hypnotherapy, one is often forced to draw the conclusion that these actions are motivated wholly by money. Psychologists know that the vast majority of their clients could benefit from hypnotherapy. They also know that hypnotherapy works fast! They certainly don’t want their clients expecting to see results too quickly; that would eat into their profits.

That said, it is important to be prudent.

Personally, I spent two years training to be a hypnotherapist. Since then I’ve continued expanding my knowledge through further education and certification courses. I’ve also gathered twenty years of experience. And even with all that I feel like I am always striving to learn more and become an even better hypnotherapist for my clients.

By way of contrast, I have met many people who have taken a six or eight-hour weekend seminar and now practice as a hypnotherapist.

It’s important to get a good understanding of the person you’ll be working with, their training, and their experience.

Angela’s Experience (cont.):

Angela got the call she was waiting for. The CEO of a large company in her field, based out of Chicago called her as she was driving home one night. He needed someone and a friend of his, someone Angela had impressed, recommended her.

They talked, and they flew her out to interview, and a few days later she had a new job.

I’ll be the first to admit, it wasn’t her dream job, but it was an amazing job. It was in her field and played to her strengths. Also, she would be making THREE TIMES as much money as she was when we first met.

Meanwhile her boyfriend had been staying over more and more. Things were going well and getting very serious.

Sadly, fairy tales aren’t real…

In the fairy tales, this is the point where the story ends. Sadly, we all know fairy tales aren’t real. For Angela, this was the point where everything started falling apart.

When you have spent years building up a self-image it becomes very important to you. This is true consciously, and even more so subconsciously. Angela saw herself as a failure and as a victim. Good things didn’t happen to her, they happen to other people.

That’s how her subconscious saw herself. So it would do everything in its power to ensure that her life reflected that negative belief. Often times it is in this moment of big change that all the work which a client has done can fall apart. They can revert back to their old patterns. I try to prepare my clients for this to happen. So if it does happen, we can work through it.

Thankfully we were able to see what was happening before too much damage could be done. By working in hypnosis, we were able to reinforce all the work that we’d been doing, reminding her subconscious of the new ways of thinking and believing in herself.

Ultimately she was able to pull through the difficult period and make the changes stick.

Take Your First Step with Hypnotherapy!

Ready to begin your journey along the transformative path of hypnotherapy? Great, I’m here to help. Click the link below and you will be redirected to my consultation scheduling page. There you can pick a date and time convenient for you. (Prefer email? Contact me here.)

During your free consultation we will discuss your goals for hypnotherapy. Address your questions and concerns. And together we will determine if hypnotherapy is right for you.

I’ve been using hypnotherapy to help my clients achieve their goals for twenty years and I want to help you achieve your goals too. Let’s discuss how hypnotherapy can help you.

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Angela’s Experience (cont.):

I followed up with Angela about a year after the big changes in her life. I learned that ultimately she had broken off her relationship. The guy had seemed too good to be true and it turned out to be just that. Even so, Angela couldn’t have been happier. She had never managed to do that before: end a relationship because she wasn’t happy with it. Always before she would just stick with it, miserable as she was. Deep down she never believed that she could meet someone else. Now she knew better.

There’s one thing I’d like you to take away from Angela’s story. It’s that she made the changes in her life. Hypnosis didn’t magically find her a rewarding job and a healthy romance. She did all the work on her own.

What hypnotherapy did was to help her shift how she thought about herself and how she thought about the world. By changing her subconscious thoughts she was able to make the choices that ultimately brought real change into her life.

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